Who likes Michael Hurley?

xxp thanks, I assumed as much.

the two Future Days CD reissues (Armchair Boogie and Hi Fi Snock Uptown) are remastered for real and sound very very good, fwiw

yeah, the recent vinyl and CD reissues sound better than the mississippi records reissues which (while officially approved of by hurley, at least) were probably needledrops.

btw what is future days? it's just an imprint of light in the attic? the copyright info on those CD reissues is confusing... they say manufactured by warner bros special products/rhino records, copyright warners/raccoon, but released by light in the attic. but then they have the "future days" logo and catalogue number.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i just saw this dude in louisville btw.

limited edition cassette "tour release" from AUS/NZ

^would buy. was talking to a guy after the show i saw & apparently at the kurt vile show the night before there'd been a jam involving hurley & alastair galbraith o_O

also new lp on the way... release date has been moved forward a couple of times since i first heard about it.

needledrops: reminds me, I've read that Hurley used to mail out his own homemade needledrop cassettes, made w dirty needles--- at least, this was reportedly allegedly the experience of a writer's friend (uh-huh), who responded to the offer on the back of a Hurley LP, think it was, according to The Spin Guide To Alternative Rock, published in the mid-90s.

Caveat, 90s fans!

well, i once sent him a check for some LPs and never got it. i emailed him about it, he apologized, but i still never got anything. i figure the enjoyment i've gotten out of his records over the years is worse losing $40.

needledrops: reminds me, I've read that Hurley used to mail out his own homemade needledrop cassettes, made w dirty needles-

I have a few of these and don't remember them sounding any worse than any other nth generation dub, but it's been years and years since I've listened to them. For a while it was the cheapest version of Armchair Boogie available and the LP seemed to get even more scarce after Cat Power covered a few of his songs back in the day.

I love these reissue-crazy times!

I have an extra ticket at union pool right now! Just in case anyone needs it

so is hi fi snock uptown like weird kkk level racist? i'm thinking "old black crow" and "the twilight zone".

uh... no?

"twilight zone" is monster-ist i guess...?

maybe the line in "trinidad" about squeezing a monkey man but that is a huge stretch.

never got that vibe

p sure "Old Black Crow" is about a bird.

Saw him at Big Ears this year, Hurley's totally delightful.

p sure "Old Black Crow" is about a bird.

Saw him at Big Ears this year, Hurley's totally delightful.

don't wanna get anyone's hopes up too much but I had to share this exchange that I had with the new Rounder Records prez, who is an acquaintance of mine w/many mutual friends (same scene, different years)

sleeve: sooo... apparently the sessions for the Unholy Modal Rounders/Michael Hurley/Clamtones all time classic "Have Moicy" album on Rounder (1976) included 19 songs, and the official release has 12... sure would be nice to have an expanded reissue! just sayin'

prez: I can make this a priority. We're on the same page bro.

was wondering what to listen to this morning. thread comes to rescue.

<3

feel so lucky to have seen him three times now.

omg

I made a 5-disc collection of unreleased live tracks, mostly covers with a few Hurley gems in there. Spanning 40 years (and 40 shows, by chance):

http://shardsofbeauty.blogspot.com/2018/06/michael-hurley-40-years.html

1st disc is the cream of the crop, then the next four discs cover the 40 years chronologically.

this really is the best — thank you for putting it together.

thanks for boosting the signal!

Awesome thanks so much for putting this together

will be listening! amazing effort.

semi-recent interview, nice and long:

https://www.cyclicdefrost.com/2018/04/michael-hurley-its-just-a-compulsion-it-wont-go-away-interview-by-erica-dunn/

he was just incredible last night, first time he's come back to Eugene in almost ten years (the last time was when he played at our house). I counted eight songs I was unfamiliar with/had never heard, out of a 90-minute set.

at this point he's the best living American singer/songwriter as far as I'm concerned.

wow....going to see him in Portland in 2 weeks

where? Laurelthurst?

https://hollywoodtheatre.org/events/lonnie-holley-toody-cole-ural-thomas-michael-hurley-and-more/

whoa that looks amazing

pretty excited, a friend of mine is playing with Lonnie.

yessssss

https://michaelhurley.bandcamp.com/album/the-time-of-the-foxgloves

July is when the foxgloves bloom in Astoria, Oregon. July is also Michael Hurley’s favorite month, whether it finds him at home in Astoria or somewhere else. He’s often somewhere else, but last summer he was home, as reasonable people were, which is where and when The Time of the Foxgloves began.

The Rope Room studio, in the Fort George brewery complex, was the place. After several sessions transferring home recordings Michael had made over the past few years on his stalwart TEAC A-3340S four-track tape machine, friends and colleagues—some local, some further flung—sang, played, and engineered what is the most varied, hi-fi Snock album heard in a while; arguably since 1988’s Watertower. Four different banjos are played by four different banjoists; there’s a battery of harmony singers (Kati Clayborn, Lindsay Clark, Josephine Foster, Betsy Nichols); upright bass, baritone ukulele, and bass clarinet address the lower ends. Beloved songs from albums past—“Lush Green Trees” (from Watertower); “Love Is the Closest Thing” (as “Time Is Right” on 1995’s Parsnip Snips)—are reassembled with some new elements (e.g., xylophone) but, lacking none of their original wonder or impact, the new versions impart an uncanny sense of continuity, as though they’ve been slowly but unceasingly evolving in the interim. (This phenomenon is a central quality of Michael Hurley performances on both records and stages). “Se Fue En La Noche” will be familiar to anyone who’s seen a Snock show over the last half-dozen years—“better put your shoesies on before you die of the cold” being among Michael’s more unforgettable adjurations—but surprisingly this is its first appearance on record. The old reliable Wurlitzer A200, instantly identifiable to all fans of Bellemeade Phonics productions, leads the way on “Blondes and Redheads,” where it’s accompanied by a nylon-stringed slide guitar. One of the banjos—this one played by Snock—is joined on “Knocko the Monk” by a sighing pump organ, making a prototypical Hurley instrumental into something disorientingly but satisfyingly wistful. Twin fiddles fiddle on opener “Are You Here For the Festival?”, this listener’s favorite recent song of Michael's since “The Corridor" (c. 2010).

“Are You Here...” came to Hurley this past June. He was out in the yard, cutting back wild blackberry. It was his second June running without a trip to Ohio for the Nelsonville Festival; it was called off this year too. Home in July to witness the foxgloves bloom again, he saw them torched come August by the extreme heat that assaulted the Pacific Northwest. But time and Snock soldier on undaunted. He’ll turn 80 in December, just after this record’s release. The Time of the Foxgloves is now.

–Nathan Salsburg, October 2021
credits

Time Of The Foxgloves is out today, at least the vinyl showed up in my mailbox. Sounds great.

I'm excited about it!

Also I've trying to research how to inquire about purchasing any of his artwork and cannot seem to get anywhere with that...

tolerable writeup in The Guardian, glad to see him getting recognition

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/dec/13/folk-singer-michael-hurley-interview

i adore hurley but it's really tied up with a past relationship that still hurts

Mine is delayed, but excited to get it next week.

Fucking lol at the "weird kkk level racist" shit. Never change ILM!

cool username, jackmyfruit

new record is fantastic — there are times when his vocals are gruff (even for Hurley), but by the end, he's crooning beautifully. long live snock!

I really love the instrumental that opens side b, "Knocko The Monk" I think?

First listen: distinctive, and sometimes subtle, turns in all these, as written, played: his Wurlitzer piano emphasizing the colors of "Blondes and Redheads," also digging the bass clarinet x half-circle of other voices around his (didn't really notice the wear that much, not after those 100 songs of Peter Stampfel's 20th Century, which I was amazedballed by over on the Holy Modal Rounders thread).

Ian and me in chat:

floyd's head
Steve…, Mississippi is reissuing sweet korn on LP, but without two of the best cuts wtf
No Barbara Allen?? Negatory romance??

floyd's head
Please have a word with someone about this

You sent
I SAW THAT

You sent
an absolute outrage

You sent
I blame Hurley himself tbh

You sent
he always does shit like that, see also Wolfways

floyd's head
Inappropriate

floyd's head
I’m still gonna fucking buy it tho 😕

You sent
lol same

You sent
gotta have the unreleased track

https://michaelhurley.bandcamp.com/album/sweetkorn

Seen him 3-4 times already this year in Portland, once opening for Will Oldham in a midsize theater, once in a little cider bar releasing this album ^^, and two more times at a bar he plays regularly. Always enjoying him.

last time I saw him (2019? pre-pandemic, also saw a pandemic zoom kitchen show) he was incredible, he's at some kind of peak